Nuremberg, 2 October 2003 – “Too many and too boring” is what the majority of Europeans think of the advertisements that surround them every day. The Spanish feel overwhelmed by the flood of advertising, while Brits feel least bothered by it. People in Italy, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are the most sceptical when it comes to advertisements. These are the findings of a survey carried out by GfK Marktforschung in 21 European countries.

Many Western, Central and Eastern Europeans all agree that they are exposed to far too much advertising and that most of it is not even entertaining. In Spain, as much as 92 per cent of the population complains about there being too much advertising, closely followed by Russia and Italy where 85 per cent feel bothered by advertising. Although around 60 per cent believe that there is too much advertising in Austria, Finland, the UK and Slovenia, people in these countries are less critical than in Spain, Russia and Italy. In the UK and Romania, almost 12 per cent would even like to see more advertising. What people in all countries agree about is that if advertisements are entertaining, they are less likely to feel bothered by them.

Entertaining ads are popular

The general attitude is reflected by the survey questions on the entertainment value of advertisements. In 14 of the 21 countries where the survey was carried out, less than 60 per cent of respondents thought that advertisements are entertaining. In particular, Czech people, Italians, Germans, people from Slovakia and Russians said that they found advertisements boring. People in the UK see it quite differently, with 73 per cent saying that they find advertisements entertaining. Similarly, 71 per cent of people in Slovenia and 70 per cent in Portugal see advertising mostly as entertainment.

Attitude to advertising in Europe

Country	Too much	Ads are entertaining	Ads are informative
Austria	61.8	58.6	81.1
Belgium	74.2	54.9	81.2
Denmark	73.8	51.7	79.2
Finland	58.6	57.8	88.1
France	79.6	57.8	59.4
Germany	78.2	30.5	53.6
UK	54.1	72.7	74.1
Greece	82.5	62.1	66.7
Italy	84.7	28.8	33.5
Portugal	66.4	70.0	76.8
Spain	91.7	46.2	50.7
Sweden	74.4	52.7	69.6
Switzerland	68.0	55.7	69.1
Bulgaria	60.2	61.9	76.1
Croatia	61.3	56.7	75.6
Czech Republic	72.0	23.5	45.8
Poland	80.9	67.0	72.4
Romania	61.5	62.9	81.1
Russia	85.2	35.7	61.0
Slovak Republic	65.4	31.6	45.1
Slovenia	57.2	70.9	86.5

1) In per cent, Source: GfK Marktforschung 2003

Advertisements as a source of information

More than 50 per cent of the population in 18 of the 21 European countries surveyed indicated that advertisements also provide handy hints about new products. Well over 80 per cent of people in Finland and Slovenia said that thanks to advertisements they are particularly well informed. At 54 per cent, the figure for Germany is in the lower half. Only in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Italy did the majority of people doubt that advertisements convey useful information about the products they are advertising.

Celebrities make ads more appealing

Overall, ads with celebrities attract attention, especially in Portugal. Over 80 per cent of Portuguese respondents believed that ads for anything from wine gums to cars are more popular if a celebrity from TV or radio is advertising the product. In Croatia and Slovenia well over 75 per cent believe this to be true. As with the information content of advertisements, it is again the Italians (47 per cent), Slovak people (35 per cent) and Czechs (30 per cent) who are most doubtful about the higher popularity of ads featuring celebrities.

Advertising works

The advertising industry uses luxury, glamour and beautiful people to make consumers buy products. In Sweden 91 per cent of the population believes that advertising works, as does 89 per cent in Greece and 87 per cent in Spain. With a share of just over 50 per cent, Italians and Russians are the more sceptical Europeans, closely followed by the Czechs, with 42 per cent, when it comes to believing that the pretend world presented in an ad will make people buy products they do not really need. In Germany around 63 per cent of people will buy a product because of an ad.

The survey

The survey on people’s attitudes to and preferences regarding advertising was carried out by GfK Marktforschung throughout Europe via GfK’s Euro bus network. Each of the 21 participating GfK subsidiaries and partner companies carried out a representative survey of around 1,000 respondents in the form of telephone or face-to-face interviews. The overall random sample comprised 21,178 respondents in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the UK, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Slovenia.
For further information, contact Peggy Zirnstein, GfK Marktforschung GmbH, Tel. +49 911 395-2998, Fax +49 911 33 84 86, peggy.zirnstein@gfk.de.